


Rite of Spring

by dagas isa (dagas_isa)



Category: Liar Game
Genre: Angst, F/M, Kid Fic, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-02
Updated: 2010-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-07 16:16:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dagas_isa/pseuds/dagas%20isa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nao finds a strangely familiar boy, and she and Akiyama discover a connection in their past that goes much deeper than they originally thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day One

It's a beautiful spring day when everything begins. Bright, sunny, the first warm day after a week of cold rains. Nao happens to be walking through town, straight from visiting her father, and pretending to live a completely normal and honest life. One where she doesn't have to be on the lookout for invitations and fake lawyers that come out of nowhere.

The sound of breaks squealing makes Nao turn around. And she swears that the kid standing in the crosswalk, looking all dazed and confused, hadn't been there a second ago. At the sound of the car's horn he wakes up.

Reflexively Nao almost runs into the street, at least trying to save the kid from injury. Almost, and then she realizes that the car has stopped in time, the driver sending blasts from her horn into the air.

"Sorry! Sorry!" The kid yells and runs to the corner, tripping on the curb and landing on his face.

"Are you okay?" Nao asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The boy brushes off some bits of dirt and asphalt from his pants.

"You sure? No skinned knees or anything."

The boy shakes his head. "I'm sure I can take care of it. If it's a scrape, then there's nothing I can do anyway until I can get home and find antiseptic and band-aids."

"All right, if you're sure about it." Nao watches the little boy for a little bit, waiting for him to head off somewhere, or for an adult to show up. When after several moments, the boy doesn't make any move. Nao walks off in the direction of her apartment.

He follows her.

"Are you lost?"

"I think so." The boy answers. Up close, Nao can't help but have the strangest feeling that this kid looks very, very familiar. She doesn't have any brothers or sisters, or even cousins that she's aware of, but his face does echo Akiyama's.

"What's your name?"

"Shinichi."

The name marks the second sign of something weird going on. Well, third. The kid seemingly appearing from nowhere and the resemblance to Akiyama should have been the first two hints. "Well, Shin-kun, I'm Kanzaki Nao." Nao says, keeping her thoughts to herself. "I'll definitely make sure you get back to where you belong." Calling him Shinichi, the same first name as Akiyama, seems weird to Nao, as though that not exactly uncommon name belongs to Akiyama alone.

Shin bows, although he looks hesitant at the shortening of his name. "Please look after me, Nao-san."

Nao bows as well. "We'll go to the nearest police box first and file a report. I'm not sure what they could do in this situation, but that would be the most obvious thing to do."

Everything seems to be normal, Nao thinks. Even the name Shinichi is common enough that seeing it on a little boy who could play a younger version of Akiyama in the movie of his life, could just be a coincidence. She stands next to him, as she listens to Shin as the police officer takes down the name, address and phone number of the missing boy. It's the full name of the little boy that catches her attention.

Last name, Akiyama. First name, Shinichi. A little boy who looks exactly like Akiyama, and appears to have the same intelligence and temperament as the one who is so familiar to her has the exact same name.

No, no. Nao thinks. That would be impossible. She shakes her head, as though that would solve the whole mystery.

"I don't know what I can do." The police officer says. "There's no member of the Akiyama family or anybody who knows of Akiyama Shinichi at that phone number. There's no report of missing children. You can go down to that address, but if I recall, they tore down that apartment building years ago."

"There's nothing else you can do?" Nao asks.

"Tell you what. Give me your phone number and address, and if there's anything that comes up, we'll keep in contact with you. I'm sure you could also contact an orphanage or something if you can't look after him."

Nao stiffens. "That shouldn't be necessary, Mr. Police Officer." She writes down her cell phone number, and her address just in case there's a problem with the telephone when they finally find Shin's parents.

"I'm not an orphan at all." Shin says, as they walk away from the police box. "I have a mother. So don't call the orphanage."

She feels a little bad, that her next instinct—actually her first instinct before common sense (and Shin) told her to go to the police—is to call Akiyama-san and see what kind of advice he could give. He'd probably be able to understand what this little boy is going through, since they're so similar. And even if that's not the case, he's a psychologist, so he probably understands children better than she does anyway.

With that, Nao takes out her cell-phone and succumbs to the horrible desire to ask Akiyama for help in finding a way out of her predicament.

*

When Nao calls Akiyama, he's in the middle of work. Funny how it can be a long week even by Wednesday. Doubly funny how a master's degree in psychology can't making getting along with one's boss and co-workers any easier. So, in his defense, when Nao calls him asking about child psychology and advice of all things—he's not in a receptive frame of mind.

"Nao, psychology has several subfields. An expert in social or criminal psychology might not know anything child psychology. The two are about as far apart in their concerns and areas of interest as you're likely to find in the field. And a knowledge of concepts in child psychology does not lead to being good with children." This last part, though Akiyama is loath to admit it, applies to him. He spent exactly one session in the child psychology lab, only to have at least half the children he worked with run out of the room screaming.

"Akiyama-san, he's about 10 years old, and he seems really smart...so maybe it doesn't have to be child psychology. You wouldn't even have to be good with children..."

"Sorry. I'm busy right now. If you really need my help for something important, I'll be there for you, but I really can't help you baby-sit."

"I'm not asking you to baby-sit. I just need some suggestions. Please."

"Sorry, Nao." He disconnects, and turns the ringer off, in case she persists.

However, Akiyama almost immediately regrets hanging up on Nao. Not because he wants to be roped into helping her look after a ten-year-old--he doesn't--but because she actually sounded panicked about her situation. Of course, he can't just call her right back. Tomorrow, he thinks, he'll just happen to be in her neighborhood and decide by chance to check in on her. Make sure that everything between her school, her father, and the Liar Game isn't overwhelming her.

And if she just happens to have problems with a ten-year-old that just happens to require his assistance, then he supposes that's something that can't be helped.

He just hopes that the kid doesn't run away from him screaming.

*

Shin knows something is not quite right with his situation. The cars on the street look totally different. The apartment building, the one that he knew was perfectly upright and standing when he left that morning, is torn down into nothing but a footprint. No one he knew had the type of tiny phone that Nao carried, but everyone here did.

At the police booth, he had taken a glimpse at the report the officer had been obligated to fill out. The month and the day were correct, but the year was eighteen years in the future. He should be old and probably doing something cool with telescopes or microscopes, or maybe going to the U.S. or Switzerland to do research on particle physics.

Shin wonders if this is really time travel and if he and Nao could find his future self somehow. In fact, Shin guesses that it was his future self who brought him to this time anyway to give away the secret of time travel, or at least point him down the right path.

"So what are you going to do, Nao-san?" He says, turning away from the site of their old apartment. It was cold in the winter, and a little damp sometimes, Shin thinks. But it was a nice place.

"I know another person named Akiyama." Nao says, at last. "He might know something about this situation. Though he seemed like he was in a bad mood today, but I'll try again tomorrow and see if he'll come over."

"Akiyama isn't really a rare last name. So he's probably not related to me."

"No, probably not." Nao agrees out loud, and technically, it's not even a lie.

They return to Nao's little apartment, smaller even than the place he grew up in, but bright and cheerful. Books are everywhere, some novels and manga, but also some college level textbooks. His own homework is...where? Probably wherever he left his backpack before time traveling.

She cooks him dinner, just some rice and soup, but more than his mother usually does.

This is a nice life, Shin thinks, as he drifts off to sleep. Sure he wants to see his mother again, but having someone like Nao to take care of him wouldn't be horrible either.

Pain. Shin dreams of immense pain. The shouting of a woman, the exhausted face of his mother turning to a broken, beaten shadow.

"Mom! Mom!" Shin calls out to the ether. No answer at all. She's gone.

"Shin-kun!" Nao calls out. He knows it's not his mother, because she always uses his full name. Not this Shin-kun that Nao seems to insist on calling him. He's in her cheerful, spotless apartment. There's no pain here, and with Nao around, he's not lonely at all.

He shakes his head. "I think I just had a bad dream. Nao-san. That's all."

"That's good. We'll find your mother soon, I promise."

But in his head, the wheels of Shin's thought process turn. Maybe, he thinks, he doesn't want to go back.


	2. Day Two

The morning after she finds Shin, Nao still has no clue what to do with a ten-year-old boy. At least she's on Spring Break right now, so there's no classes to debate about whether she should attend or not, or what she's going to do with her new charge.

And, except for what appears to be Shin's apparent distaste for sitting around and watching television—not entirely a bad thing—he seems to be fairly quiet and independent, if a little intense. She thinks, that she probably doesn't need to baby-sit him all the time, as long as she can still make sure he's taken care of. If he really is a younger version of Akiyama-san, he probably wouldn't want Nao fretting over him.

Nao does worry though. No matter how much time she has to figure out a solution, this is not an ideal situation for either one of them to be in. And what of his mother? Isn't she worrying about him right now?

Nao thinks. she has to try again. She takes out her cell phone, and calls Akiyama, determined to get through this time.

"Yes." Akiyama sounds irritated that she keeps calling him. And she guesses that if it were for her own sake, she'd feel bad for annoying him so often. But this really isn't for Nao. It's for the boy who has put himself into Nao's care. And if she gave up just because he said no to her yesterday, then she wouldn't be Kanzaki Nao.

Nao sits on a park bench, watching Shin play on the swings. "Can you come over after you're done with work?"

She hears his sigh on the other end of the phone. "Is this about the baby-sitting thing again?"

"Kind of. Not baby-sitting, I can take care of him on my own I think, until he can go back to his family. I just think I need your help with that. I've been to the police, and they've said they'll get back to me, but there's something unusual going on."

"Huh?"

Nao makes her confession. "I think he might be you."

"Stop joking around."

Nao shakes her head. Even though he can't see it, she starts becoming slightly hysterical about it. "I'm not joking at all, Akiyama-san. He's about 10 years old, but he looks exactly like a miniature version of you. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I thought you might have some idea about what's happening. Maybe a memory."

"Exactly like me?"

"The resemblance to you is scary, Akiyama-san. And he has the same name and everything."

"You sure this isn't a trick?"

"I don't know." Nao hasn't considered the possibility of someone disguising a child as Akiyama, and even when he mentions it, she still can't imagine anyone doing that. What purpose would it serve? And why would anyone send a child after her? "Please come over. I'll make dinner and everything."

A pause, an incredibly long one, follows. "Okay. Will tonight be soon enough?"

"Thank you!" Nao grins at the phone.

"Did your friend say he'd come?" Shin says, walking over to Nao.

Nao nods.

"What if I don't want to go home?" Shin asks, "What if I want to stay with you, Nao-san?"

Nao knows what awaits Shin in the future, if he really is a younger Akiyama, and if what she knows about his past is correct. "Don't say that, Shin-kun! Even if staying with me might be fun for a little bit, wouldn't you rather be with your mother? "

He shrugs. "She's never around anyway. So it doesn't matter."

Nao has to hide her tears, and prays that Akiyama doesn't have to hear his past self say anything so horrible. "Don't say that! Of course it matters. I'm sure your mother is doing the best she can do!"

Maybe she should call Akiyama and tell him not to come. Nao probably could come up with a solution on her own, eventually.

But to be honest, she has no clue what to do with Shin, especially if he ends up staying for a long time. How is she supposed to go about being a mother to a ten-year-old when she's just finished her first year of college? No, Shin needs to get back to where he belongs, as quickly as possible, and doing that means recruiting Akiyama's help.

Plus, she wants to get to the bottom of this strange resemblance between them.

*

"Akiyama-san! You made it!"

Akiyama arrives well after sundown. The man assigned to his case had stopped in to make sure the con-artist wasn't doing anything dishonest, such as participating a game systematically devised to make him act dishonestly. Of course, his unofficial activities don't get mentioned ever, and it's not like he'd ever stop participating in the Liar Game until his mission is accomplished. Case workers, Akiyama guesses, simply do not understand desperate measures. Or that the entirety of his social and potential romantic life revolves around them.

"I told you I would." He leaves it at that.

"Akiyama-san, this is Shin-kun," Nao points to the little boy who looks nice and comfortable with a pile of college textbooks in front of him. "Shin-kun, this is my friend Akiyama-san."

In his plans, Akiyama walks in, comforts an obviously panicked Nao, and gets to work disproving this "imposter" of his that she's found, and returning him to his proper place. In reality, the eternal bane of plans everywhere, every observation of the boy, from the solemn demeanor, to the scrawny build, to the exact hair-cut he had when he was ten, to an exact replica of his favorite shirt as that age—one that he vaguely recalls his mother throwing away against his protests, indicates that disproving this imposter might be difficult.

When Shin looks up, Akiyama might as well be looking at a school picture. "Akiyama-san?" Shin asks, taking an assessment of Akiyama's work clothes, hard hat, and tool box that he brought with him. "Oh, he's just a day laborer. What can he do to help us?"

Wait, what? Not much outside of blithe naivety fazes Akiyama Shinichi. This does.

"Akiyama-san is really smart," Nao and her motor-mouth come to the rescue. "He can find a way out of anything."

"Is he a criminal? He looks suspicious."

Akiyama wonders if his history is somehow written all over his face. This whole ex-convict thing being public knowledge goes against his private nature, as does having what Akiyama would swear is the physical manifestation of his inner-child—if he believed in such nonsense—blurt out aspersions on his current self.

"I'm sorry, Akiyama-san," Nao says, chopping up ingredients, "I'm sure he doesn't mean to be rude. I'm just glad that you came over."

He shrugs. "I'm just here for dinner."

To tell the truth, Akiyama would have come over anyway. One, after putting so much time and effort into protecting her from one improbable danger, he's not going to let anything else ruin that. Two, Akiyama admits a minor curiosity to seeing this boy who could be a doppleganger of himself. Plus considering how clumsy she is, her culinary skills would be suspect at best, probably complete with over-salted food, meat that resembled charcoal briquettes, and a fire or two in the process. Dinner had originally seemed more an additional strain than an incentive, but her movements seem deft, and the food that she dishes out onto the plates and puts on the table looks at least somewhat edible.

"This is surprisingly good," Akiyama says, taking a bite of the pork cutlet that Nao has made for them.

Her face falls, and it occurs to Akiyama that maybe that wasn't the most diplomatic thing to say. "Thank you. I'm still not very good...I'm out of practice..."

"Mom doesn't cook like this," Shin says, taking a tomato from the salad Nao made and looking at it, "She used to just make ramen all the time or get take out." As Nao had said, Shin looks a lot like him, and too many nights in elementary school eating ramen and take out sounds too familiar.

"So, what do you think, Akiyama-san?"

Akiyama smirks. "I think I'm going to start coming over a little more often. Help you practice."

"I want to live with Nao-san, too." Shin blurts out. "Forget going home to Mom."

Akiyama winces at that, and opens his mouth to correct him. Only Nao beats him to it.

"You shouldn't say that!" Nao says, almost tipping her water glass over. Shocked at the passion of her words, Akiyama stares at Nao. Shin does too. "I mean...some people aren't lucky enough to have known their mothers at all. So it's really sad to hear someone talk about not wanting to be with their mother."

"Where's your mom, Nao-san?"

"Ahh—she died when I was one. I don't remember her at all....my father raised me."

"I bet she was really nice and pretty like you."

Akiyama thinks he sees the start of a blush coming to Nao's face. As for Akiyama himself, he can't believe that this kid, if he is in fact the same person, is 'flirting' so blatantly with Nao. He's probably more embarrassed than either of the others, having a version of himself clumsily saying things that at one point in time, he might have really thought. And yes, who also reflects his current thoughts at some level. Inner-child indeed.

"My father said I'm a lot like her, very kind and helpful." Nao just says, suddenly concentrating on her food and leaving it just like that.

Akiyama holds his tongue, even if he does want to finish what Shin had started and keep teasing Nao.

"Nao-san?" Shin asks, sprawled out on Nao's bed and reading her manga collection.

"Yes?" She's moving around the apartment, half-watching the drama that's on in the background, and half tidying the place up.

"You're really pretty. Want to be my girlfriend?"

Akiyama, at Nao's laptop for the past couple of hours looking up information on time-travel, possible consequences of time travel, scams involving children as a distraction, child psychology, and how much of his history really is public knowledge, finds himself suddenly needing to make an authoritative statement.

"That's impossible."

Nao and Shin stare at him. Nao, of course, is about the color of a ripe tomato, and Shin grinning like the little idiot boy he is. Not for the first time since encountering his younger self as Akiyama wondered how the smart, studious, angelic boy he remembered being could actually be this little brat.

"Well, Shin-kun," Nao stumbles over her words, "you're really cute and nice and all, but I might just be a bit too old--"

"In other words, kid," Akiyama says from the table, deciding that he might as well play a little bit. "you need to grow up a little before you'll be ready for her." He decides to be mean. "Say, about eighteen years or so."

Nao stands up, hands on her hips, her face progressing to a shade beyond tomato. "Akiyama-san, that's not really necessary."

"She deserves better than you, Mr. Criminal Construction Worker."

No, he doesn't remember being that brutal at all. But then he recalls the few times when his mother would go out on dates with the men that she met at work, and his less-than-charitable feelings towards them. But then those men were jerks. "I think that would be up to Nao-san." Akiyama says. Nao's face goes from beyond tomato to nuclear.

"Who'd you rather have a boyfriend, Akiyama-san or me?"

Nao blinks, looks at both of them, and suddenly starts laughing hysterically, her words choked up. "I think right now," she manages to get out, "you're both being pretty silly." She nearly doubles over with the force of her emotions, "It's kind of cute..."

Cute? Akiyama raises an eyebrow. He was hoping for cool, or hot, or sexy. Something that would win him points in Kanzaki Nao's book.

"You're always so serious, Akiyama-san." Nao laughs. "It's nice to see you loosen up sometimes."

"I'm not always serious. You just always happen to catch me at a stressful time."

Nao just smiles. "Well, then, I'm happy to have caught you now."

Her expression, the meaning of those words, and the meaning behind those words stabs warmly into the middle of his chest. Try as he might to keep things impersonal with Nao, or at least at a level where he can laugh off whatever exists between them, at moments like these, he wonders who is helping who in this whole situation, and how many more chances he'll have to remain in her company. All the teasing he's done to her turns on him.

"Akiyama-san?" Nao notices his sudden quietness. "Is something wrong?"

He shrugs, and goes back to his research.

*

After Shin goes to bed, Akiyama sits down with Nao. He doesn't know where to start, and judging by the way that her folded hands have become the most interesting thing in the room Nao doesn't either.

"So...." Nao starts, "What do you think about this, Akiyama-san?"

He cuts his first response about the fact that every reasonable person knows that time travel should be impossible—and in fact, nothing in his research has shown any possibility of time-travel existing between Shin-kun's time and the present—and his second response about just how deep the resemblance between himself and Shin-kun goes, to go with the crux of the matter. "He needs to go home. Whoever he is. Wherever and whenever that is."

"I know." Nao says, the energy deflating from her. "Despite everything he said earlier, I think Shin does too. He needs his mother."

This is weird, Akiyama thinks, to hear Nao talking about what any version of himself, child or adult, needs. But she's right.

"Does he know who I am?" Akiyama asks.

Nao shakes her head, then shrugs. "He knows your name is Akiyama, obviously. I don't know if he's thought about it beyond that. What do you think?"

He considers this situation, and himself at his age. "He'll figure it out." Akiyama is certain of this, if "Shin" hasn't already figured it out at all, then he will, just from the very simple act of asking Akiyama's first name. "I think he already knows more about this than we think he does. If, in some weird way, this is time travel, he already knows it."

"How so?"

Akiyama points to the newspaper on the table, to Nao's cell-phone on the dresser, to the little laptop he's been using to do his work while he's stranded at Nao's apartment and "forced" to endure her company and her cooking. "Plus television, music, the cars on the street. There's no way that this is almost twenty years ago. And Shin knows it."

"Un." Nao agrees. "He knows he's not where he's supposed to be, and I think he's scared of that."

Hearing Nao try to psychoanalyze him, even a "him" of eighteen years ago, disturbs him. Especially when she continues. "I don't believe him at all when he would rather stay with me for the rest of his life. He'd rather go home and be with his mother, but he has no clue what it is he has to do to get there. And that's probably scary for a someone as smart as he is."

They fall into silence. Akiyama guesses that Nao is right, and if the boy had been anybody except for what would be his "past self" if time travel weren't impossible he would agree with her, and possibly add in some insights as his own. Instead, he chooses to distract her.

"I think it's getting late."

"Oh!" Nao says, going to her closet and pulling out some blankets. "You can spend the night, if you don't mind sleeping on the floor."

That's almost exactly what he had in mind, although in his ideal scenario, there's no kids around at all, and they both have full use of the bed.

He shrugs. "That's fine." Akiyama says, spreading out the spare blankets that Nao gave him on the floor to make at least some form of bed. He decides to resume his teasing. "And to answer Shin's question from earlier, you'd much rather have me as a boyfriend."

She tosses a pillow at Akiyama, her face turning as pink as the blanket he's going to sleep on. "Of course...I mean...not that it matters—you really shouldn't joke around like that, Akiyama-san."

Nao grabs her pajamas and makes a hasty and--to Akiyama's eyes--strategic retreat to the bathroom.

It's decided, he thinks, when a half-angry, half-embarrassed Nao emerges from the middle of her bedtime routine—complete with a seaweed facial mask—he likes her better when she's not a fearful, trembling victim of a huge corporation. "I also think," he whispers, "you should sleep on the floor with me tonight."

Her eyes flash. "I never realized you were so perverted, Akiyama-san...."

"You were the one who invited me to stay over," Akiyama grins. "Plus I promise to keep my hands to myself." He means it too.

Nao washes the mask off her face, leaving the little green flecks of dried seaweed cream behind her ear, that he's tempted to rub off with a caress. "I invited you over because I thought you might have some idea about how we can get Shin back to where he belongs."

He can't resist. "You missed a spot. Maybe I should help you with it..."

She jumps in her skin. "Akiyama-san....you promised...." Her fingers rub off the dried crumbles, but stay on the patch of skin for much longer than necessary.

"I only said I'd keep my hands to myself. All other body parts are fair game."

"What other body--" Nao starts to ask, and then covers her mouth. Akiyama guesses she's not that naïve. "Never mind. We should go to bed." And those wide eyes of hers gaze at him in earnest. "And sleep. Just sleep."

"Well, if you insist," Akiyama says, laying down and very purposefully leaving a space open next to him. One that Nao seems to very happily lie down in. Even if her blush covers her entire face from her neck to her ears.

*

Shin hears the vague talk of Nao and Akiyama wafting through his dreams, interspersed with the warm voice of his mother, and the feeling of her hands around his. Lights shine bright against his eyelids, blue, yellow, and green.

Like an astronaut, he floats in nebulous space. He thinks he can see cats eyes, black holes, the births and deaths of stars and galaxies. One line connects him to Tokyo still. The hands of his mother around his anchor him to the real world. He wants to go home. Even if home means tons of homework and cooking ramen or ordering take out every night.

Only slowly, so slowly she seems to float away.

"Mom!"

When he wakes up, he's not in the small apartment he lives in with his mom, but again in the small apartment of Kanzaki Nao.

She and that Akiyama person are sleeping on the floor together. Akiyama is spread out across the blanket, while Nao curls up against his side. Careful not to step on Nao, and slightly less so to not step on Akiyama, Shin goes to Nao's bookshelf and picks out a textbook to look at. It's college stuff, so it should be pretty interesting, he thinks, and not all that more challenging than the books he reads at home.

The doorbell rings.

Nao staggers to her feet, and runs to the door. Shin gets there just slightly ahead of her.

"Good morning, Nao-chan!" An incredibly ugly, very toothy man in a cheap suit greets Nao. Shin automatically wants to trip him down the apartment stairs, and judging from Nao's sudden stiffness, she's not happy about seeing him first thing in the morning either.

"Tanimura-san..." Nao says. Her body fully blocks the door. "I have to apologize but today is kind of a bad day for a visit..."

Tanimura looks at Shin. "A cousin of yours?"

"Ahh...no...I'm just looking after Shin-kun for a little bit...." Nao says. Shin supposes it's true enough.

"No matter," Tanimura says,waving a glossy black envelope in Nao's face. "Just as long as you can keep your head above water." Even though Nao keeps a nice polite face, Shin can tell she's annoyed.

"Oi, just give it to her." Akiyama says sleepily. "That's all your job is." But then Akiyama doesn't even wait for Tanimura to give the envelope from Nao, he takes it and hands it to her. "You can leave now."

Akiyama suddenly seems very cool to Shin. Not so much a just a construction worker anymore, but someone who protects Nao to the best of his abilities. If Nao were the princess, and that Tanimura was a dragon, then Akiyama would be the knight who rescues her. Or at least the peasant boy who tries to protect her.

"I should. Today's a busy day. I look forward to your performance in the final round, Kanzaki Nao-sama, Akiyama Shinichi-sama." Tanimura emphasizes every syllable of Shinichi, and Shin finally gets it.

He stares at Akiyama Shinichi. Shin would never grow up to be like that. He's smart, so why would a future him do jobs like construction work instead of studying hard and going to university? Shin knows he could get into Teito University with one hand tied behind his back. Why would Shin become this shady kind of person?

It doesn't make any sense at all that this is who Shin grows up to be, or that he'd ever meet this man. But the coincidences pile up too fast for him to ignore.

He has a simple way to solve this. Actually, he thought of it last night, when he first saw Nao's friend Akiyama. There was just no way he could become that Akiyama, so he dismissed the possibility.

"How do you write your full name, Akiyama-san?"

The adults exchange a glance, like they're having an entire conversation just using telepathy—which any smart person knows only exists in superhero shows or anime. Akiyama slowly nods, and Nao gives him a page torn from her notebook, and a pen.

He writes his name. Shin tells himself, it has to be written differently. "Shinichi" is a common enough name, and there's so many ways to write the "Shin" part of it. So even if Akiyama has the same first name, it might not really be the same name.

"Here, kid." Akiyama hands him the pink piece of paper.

Shin unfolds it, and looks at the kanji. Akiyama uses the same characters, all the way through. When he studies the handwriting, the stroke and lines are already familiar to Shin.

"Are you...am I..."

Akiyama nods.

He has to know. "Why did I grow up to be such a loser?"


	3. Day Three

So, the secret is out, Nao thinks. Not that she can imagine keeping anything secret from any version of Akiyama Shinichi.

"Why did I grow up to be such a loser?"

She defends Akiyama reflexively. "Akiyama-san is not a--"

Akiyama interrupts her. "It's a fair question." His voice barely rises above a whisper. He looks stoic enough, but after watching Akiyama in so many situations, she hears the tension in his voice, and knows his expression as the one he uses to block out pain. Shin's words hit their target much deeper than he can know right now. "One that he needs to see for himself. I have the day off tomorrow. We'll to the aquarium, and then we'll visit my mother. "

Nao looks at him, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

He shrugs. "It needs done."

"Umm...do you want me to come along?"

Akiyama's gaze drills into her. Nao suddenly realizes that while she does know Akiyama's past—or a version of it consistent with his behavior—Akiyama doesn't know that she knows. Nor did he ever tell her. Even just asking, indicates that Nao knows something, right? She should have waited for an invitation, or some instructions.

"Whatever you want to do." Akiyama says while lacing his boots. "What are you going to do with Shin today?"

"Definitely visit my father," Nao says, "Between the Liar Game,school and everything, I've really neglected him. I'll take Shin with me. My dad will enjoy the extra company."

"Fine." Akiyama grabs his hat. "I'll come over for dinner. And we can work more on finding out how to send Shin home. Later."

"See you tonight, Akiyama-san."

*

Her father's reaction to Shin is not what Nao imagined it to be. Her normally cheerful, sleepy, easygoing father sees Shin and instantly becomes alert. Perhaps she only imagines the vague shake of his head.

"Nao-chan?"

"Father." Nao sets down the little plate of sweets that she made for him and the other patients on the nightstand. "You seem very awake today."

"That's because you're here. And I see you've brought a visitor."

"This is Shin-kun. I'm looking after him for a little bit."

"Ahh—for a second he looked familiar. Maybe a cousin of yours or something." He knows as well as Nao does that there are no cousins in their family, at least not any that are as young as Shin. "It must be the imagination of an old man. Do you play chess, Shin-kun?"

Nao goes to the shelf where her father keeps his trusted game board, the one that has seen thousands of games between father and daughter, and even more among her father and his friends. Nao knows her father at least was an incredible player, and she would bet a small sum, less than 100 million, that Shin would know how to play well, or at least could pick up the game very quickly.

"I've never played before, sir." Shin's voice is very quiet, different from both his demeanor with Akiyama or herself.

"It's very simple to learn," the elder Kanzaki says, as Nao sets up the chess pieces for him. "Nao can explain the rules, and then she can help move the pieces for me."

"Please try your hardest." Nao smiles.

Her father wins the game, of course. In the course of watching him play for as long as she can remember, Nao never once actually recalls a game where he lost to any opponent. But, as Nao suspects, Shin grasps the concept and strategy of chess incredibly quickly, and the game is much closer than she would suspect.

"You did well, Shin-kun. Nao, give him some money to buy us drinks."

Nao opens her wallet and gives Shin a 1000 yen bill.

"I'd like some coffee. No cream, lots of sugar."

"Dad, your heart—are you sure?"

"I'll be fine Nao. Tell Shin-kun what you want."

"Oh...just some green tea would be fine. Get anything you want, and don't worry about the rest."

When Shin leaves the room, her father wastes no time. He grabs her wrist weakly and asks, "Where did you meet Shin?"

"I was shopping, and he was lost. He started following me, and I couldn't just abandon..."

Her father's alertness takes on a sharper edge. "Did I ever tell you how your mother, how she went?"

The sudden change in subject takes Nao aback for a little bit. Why talk about her mother all of a sudden? But Nao follows along. "It was an accident, right? A car hit her while she was in the crosswalk."

He tilts his head slightly. "Yes, but no." He leans back in his bed and smiles. His voice, as always is slow and gravelly, always more so the few times he talks about her mother. "You resemble your mother so much, very pretty, but more importantly very kind and always wanting to help others." Nao has heard this many times. It's been a common refrain from her father all through her childhood and adolescence.

What she hasn't heard is what he says next: "On the day she died, a young boy had been walking in a street when it seemed that an oncoming car would hit him. She jumped out and protected him. They were both hospitalized. The boy was in a coma for four days, but he miraculously pulled through. Your mother was not so lucky. I swear that boy looks exactly like him. But that would be impossible wouldn't it? Just my muddled brain bringing up the past."

"Of course it would be." Nao asks, grateful that Shin has not come back with the drinks, or else she'd have a huge puddle of liquid to clean up and an empty can. "Do you know the name of the boy?"

"Akiyama Shinichi. He would have been that boy's age when it happened."

Nao tears up. What should she tell her father? Or Akiyama? Or Shin? Her father wouldn't lie to her about this, especially if he doesn't even know that she has an Akiyama Shinichi who is a very important part of her life. And he doesn't because she's been good about keeping that worrisome secret from him. "I see. It's probably just someone who resembles him." She forces a smile.

Shin decides to walk into the room then, and Nao gets no time to react before she has to force a smile. "Here's your coffee, sir." The cup of coffee gets handed to Nao's father, while the green tea goes to Nao. Shin keeps a can of juice for himself. The change goes into Nao's hand.

"I said not to worry about the change, Shin-kun."

"My mother told me," Shin says very quietly, "that I should live an honest life. It wouldn't be very nice to keep your change, Nao-san. However..." he gives a smirk that's so familiar it makes her heart ache a little bit to see it on such a young face, "I'd be happy to earn it back by beating you in a game of chess."

"You're on! I used to play my father everyday for years!" Nao pushes her sleeves up past her elbows, and starts setting up the pieces.

It's a close game, but Nao still loses the change from that bill.

*

Akiyama arrives home—well, at Nao's place, which is about ten-thousand times more homey than his own beat up room—to a very subdued Shin reading a manga of Nao's, an a very, very quiet Nao making chicken curry over the stove.

"I'm back." Akiyama says,

"Welcome back." Nao returns. "I just started dinner, so you'll have enough time for a shower, if you want one."

While a shower does sound good, something is wrong. The atmosphere feels more subdued here than last night. Both Nao and Shin are tense. Did something happen to her father? From listening to Nao, Akiyama knows that the man is very sick, but she'd given no indication that he'd been that close to death.

"How'd the visit with your father go?" He prepares for the worst.

She gives a forced smile. "Pretty well. My father was happy to have another visitor, and we all played chess for a bit. It was fun."

Shin closes the book. "Her father's really old and sick, but I couldn't beat him at chess at all. I did win against Nao though. Do you play, Akiyama-san?"

Akiyama remembers playing just a couple games. For some reason, the thought of the western version of chess, the wooden pieces in the shape of an army, the castles, knights, and bishops, brings an unpleasant feeling to his stomach. He can't recall if his younger self had any aversion to the game, but if so, the feeling is subdued in Shin. "I prefer Go or Shogi."

"It was pretty fun. I had a knack for it."

Akiyama smirks. "I see." Of course his younger self would have a talent for anything strategic, he reasons.

"It would be an interesting match to see," Nao says, completely out of the blue, "Akiyama-san and Shin-kun head to head. I don't think we have a chess board here though."

To be honest, Akiyama doesn't want to play. "You have a Shogi board? Or a deck of cards? We can teach Shin-kun how to play poker. That'll be useful for him to know."

"Oh, so you're a gambler now?" Shin asks.

The aroma from Nao's cooking starts to waft through the room. "Shin-kun's the one who played a chess game for money."

"Yeah, but I earned it," Shin reasons, "Chess is a strategy game. Poker's just luck."

"You think so? If it's luck, then each of us should win an even amount of times, right? Since we're all using the same cards and distributing them randomly."

"Yeah."

"So then, if I beat you soundly at poker tonight, it won't be because of luck."

Shin appears to consider this, and Akiyama realizes that he knows exactly what his younger self would think in this situation.

"And if I beat you soundly in poker, that won't be because of luck either."

Nao plates the food and sets three spots at the table. "So then, what happens if I win against you both?"

Akiyama tries to picture Nao playing poker and winning. He can't see it. Not unless angels come down and bless her with good cards, and then tell her how to keep them without letting her opponents know the hands she holds. "That—that's impossible." He finally stammers out.

Akiyama takes most of the wins, and Nao—surprisingly good at regular poker—takes most of the rest, leaving Shin with the scraps. Shin goes to bed sullen and sulky. Of course, Akiyama reasons, he's always hated losing, especially to himself. Too bad that he recognizes every single one of Shin's tells from his own childhood.

"Akiyama-san," Nao says, after Shin has rested for awhile. "I think I figured out why Shin is here."

Huh? Nao's figured out time-travel? Has he somehow unknowingly protected the next Einstein all this time?

"Well...not scientifically or anything," Nao corrects herself, as though reading his mind. "But I think I know the cause even if I can't explain why."

"Akiyama-san, do you ever remember being in an accident when you were Shin's age? There had been a speeding car, and you were in a crosswalk."

Akiyama closes his eyes. When Nao says the words, he can hear the sounds of tires screeching, the call of voices. Pain. Disorientation. A period of time in his life that becomes little more than a fog. "Just barely. How would you know about that?"

Nao's hands, holding the cup of tea, tremble. Unusually quiet tonight, she suddenly slumps over with an extra weight on her shoulders.

He should have lied, he thinks. He should backtrack and tell her there was no accident. Memory is unreliable.

Nao speaks up before he can deny anything. "My father told me. When you were about Shin's age, you were in the crosswalk when a speeding car seemed to be on the path to hit you. A woman tackled you and shielded you with her body. My mother witnessed the whole thing. According to my father, you were unconscious for four days, but you finally woke up and made a full recovery."

"What happened to the woman?" He knows, and hears the story that Nao tries not to tell, that her mother was not a witness at all.

"She went to the hospital with the boy but they couldn't do anything for her..."

Of course, Akiyama thinks. If he believed in superstition, he'd believe that any kind-hearted woman was doomed to die because of him. "It was stupid of her to protect me at the cost of her own life." His stomach weighs down with guilt.

Nao shakes her head. "I don't think so at all. She was probably thinking of her own child in that same situation and doing what she hoped a stranger would have done for her. Protecting you, protecting anybody isn't stupid at all."

"What about her own family? Would they agree?" Akiyama knows. Why is that he almost wants Nao to blame him? Or if not Nao, then her father. But she won't. He knows her. Look at what he's already put her through with the Liar Game, and yet she still continues to believe in him as her knight in shining armor.

Nao falls silent at that. When she speaks again, all pretense of the woman in question not being related to her drops. "I don't remember my mother at all. By the time I realized that she'd never come back and understood what death was, she was just a beloved stranger. My father...he loved her so much. I can't recall if he ever went on dates again. But he never said a single thing against what she did or who she saved. He would just tell me that it was important to be kind and help others, in the same way that my mother always tried to."

"Nao..." Akiyama suddenly sees where Nao's character comes from, obviously from her father's lessons, but probably from her parents' genetics as well. She breaks down at the sound of her name and makes it a point of going around the table to cry on his shoulder. It can't be helped, he guesses, wrapping an arm around her, and letting her have her tears. Dealing with Nao is so much easier when the problem can easily be solved with the application of strategy and psychological knowledge. He's at a loss right now.

"Don't regret surviving, Akiyama-san," Nao whispers, even as her tears wet his face and neck. Any more of this crying and he won't need a shower. "I'm always going to be glad to have met you."

"I'll protect you," Akiyama vows, for once holding her as tight as he wants to. "Although, if you cry much more, you might end up drowning us first."

Nao manages to give a small smile.

"That's better," he tells her, moving away to get that shower in, before making the—very careful and completely innocent—suggestion that he and Nao try sleeping together again.

*

Shin hears so much more than the adults give him credit for, even his future, loser self. He heard the last part of the story from outside Nao's father's room, and then the whole story tonight while he pretended to sleep.

This is the nightmare, he keeps repeating to himself. Future Akiyama and Nao are just ghosts, lies to distract him from waking up and getting back to the real world. The warmth of his mother's hands, what he used to think of as his tether in his dream, those are real. If he concentrates, the fuzzy lights of his dreams seem more real. The lights of a hospital. He hears not only the muffled voice of his mother, but the sounds of men talking, and the piercing cry of a child calling out for its mother. Machines too.

That's real, he tries to tell himself. Nao and Akiyama and Nao's cooking and his apartment building being torn down and playing chess with an old man, those are all dreams. The reality has to be the hospital.

He should wake up. He has to wake up.

Of course, when he opens his eyes, he's still back in the apartment with Nao and his future self. Both of them spread across the floor on the same blanket from yesterday. Akiyama lays on his side, facing Nao, and she uses his arm as a pillow again.

Maybe, Shin thinks, he just needs to see his mother again to end this nightmare. If he's already this old—twenty-eight years, practically ancient—then his mother must be old enough to retire now. If his future self had been smart enough to get a decent paying job, that is. Even if Shin couldn't tell her who he was, of course his mother would recognize him. He'd promise her that he'd do better, and everything will be fine. He can go back to his own time, where there was no accident, where Nao's mother never did anything to save his life, and all these illusions will just go away.

"Nao-san, Akiyama-san! We're going to see mom today, right?"

Two groggy adults wake up. "Shin-kun..." Nao rubs the sleep from her eyes.

"Oi."

"We're going to see my mom today, right?"

His past self closes his eyes, but not from sleep. "Yes, we'll go see Mom today."

Shin guess that he'll find out for sure what really happened. More and more he's sure that both Nao and Akiyama are keeping something important from him.

They won't keep it from him anymore.

And then he'll go home.


	4. The Final Day

On the surface, Nao thinks, everything seems normal, or at least some facsimile of normal, as they prepare for this outing. Despite both Akiyama and Shin's anxiousness to see their mother, although probably for completely different reasons, Akiyama continues to insist that they go to the aquarium.

"You should come with," Akiyama says, "at least to the aquarium. We might as well have one real date together."

Which is why, as Akiyama spends his time working on the laptop and Shin keeps reading her college textbooks, Nao very deliberately, and very much ignoring the warm flush that filled her face, creates three lunch boxes that look almost like mini-seascapes (except that the rice is not blue).

"They're kind of elaborate." Akiyama murmurs when she's done.

"Ahh..." Yeah, it does seem excessive, now that she looks at the results. "I guess I got carried away. It's kind of nice being able to make fun things for other people."

"That's fine." Akiyama says, taking a final look at the lunch box she made for him—the one with the penguins—before she closes the lid and wraps it up. "At least we won't have to buy lunch when we're there."

"True." Nao says, a smile on her face.

Akiyama's face becomes a mask. This has to be difficult for him, Nao thinks. "Let's go," he says.

*

"Why the aquarium?" Nao asks later, while Shin has his nose to the glass watching the amorphous jellyfish float in their dark tank. She admires their forms, completely organic and elegant, floating without cares or worry. Briefly she wishes the three of them could be like them. But then, she supposes, that would make them unable to think at all.

Akiyama shrugs. "Why not? I thought it would be a fun experience for him, and a pleasant way for us to spend some time together for once."

She definitely does not object. Her hand reaches out for Akiyama's, and he takes it. "So it really is like a date then?" Nao asks.

He sighs. "Didn't we already agree on that?"

Shin sets the pace, going through the exhibits, somehow both rushing and stalling for time simultaneously. Akiyama would know his younger self best, Nao thinks. That's why he chose this activity because as much as Akiyama loved his mother, and as much as Shin wants to go home, these moments, these few days together, are something Akiyama never had, or at least never remembered.

And Shin, probably thinking or guessing, that returning home to his mother—as much as he wants to—means going back to a life where he never has a chance to do something like this.

"A coral reef?" Shin's eyes widen when he opens his bento, "complete with a shark?"

Nao grins and nods. Then she listens to a fifteen minute explanation taken from the exhibits, about how accurate and inaccurate each and every piece of all three bento boxes are.

"I was always a really quiet kid, I swear." Akiyama says to Nao, as they leave the aquarium, "maybe he isn't me."

Nao considers his words. "No, he's very Akiyama-like. You both really enjoy teaching others. Plus," a warm feeling fills her heart, "when both of you open up, there's always a lot going on behind it."

"What?"

At Akiyama's confused look, Nao realizes that perhaps she said something too much or inappropriate to the situation. "It's nothing...just forget I said anything." Nao becomes very interested in her own lunch box, and in finishing the can of green tea before they leave the aquarium for good.

"I see..." Akiyama accompanies his response with a small smile, the one that always leaves her heart pounding just a little bit faster.

"Ahh...I think we should get going..."

*

The difficult part comes later in the afternoon, as they leave the aquarium, and they all have to face the important part of the day, and all the unspoken lies and truths that they've been telling each other. A quiet, sullen group of three they must make, walking through the park.

Nao breaks the silence. "Akiyama-san, would you prefer taking Shin-kun to visit your mother by yourself?"

Again, those piercing eyes, the ones that seem to dig into her brain and ask, "What do you know?" Nao doesn't look away this time, just gives the slightest nod.

"Do what you want." Akiyama says, with a shrug that seems to take on the weight of the world instead of lifting it off.

"Nao-san should come with us," Shin answers less ambiguously. "Mom would like meeting her."

Nao tries not to cry. She knows. Akiyama seems to know that she knows. But to Shin, who has not experienced all of Akiyama's life, or realized the steps that took him from the clever boy with a bright future to the current Akiyama, actually seeing his mother will hurt.

"She would." The older Akiyama admits in a voice that Nao can barely hear.

And to Nao, who has made trying to understand her partner-in-crime and protector one of her current ambitions, it's apparent that though the grown-up Akiyama—her Akiyama—will never say so, he does have a definite preference.

"I'm going with you." Nao says.

"That's fine," Akiyama says. "We'll pick up flowers first."

*

The Akiyama family grave is a nice place, Nao thinks. Peaceful, somewhat secluded from the rest of the cemetery, although a bit unkempt. She lets Akiyama go first, lets him mourn in peace. Is this the first time, Nao wonders, that he's visited his mother's grave? Watching him pray, Nao looks down.

"Akiyama-san..." She reaches for him, when he finishes.

He shakes his head. "I'm fine." However, he does take her hand and squeeze it briefly.

When he draws back, Nao goes forward to give flowers to a woman she's never met, but who, in a way, she owes her life to. "Thank you," Nao says quietly through her tears, "for raising such a wonderful son. I promise, I'll take care of him." She wishes that she could have met Akiyama Michiko and say those words in person, that his mother had never suffered the fate she did.

The whole time, Shin stays in the background. "Hey!" he starts at first, "aren't we going to see mom? Why are we doing this first?"

As neither Akiyama nor Nao say anything, the possibility seems to occur to him. Nao's heart breaks, watching the painful realization dawn. Shin shakes his head.

"Shinichi," Akiyama says, using his full name, "Five years ago, mom she--"

Not even the adult Akiyama can say the words easily.

Shin freezes and trembles at the same time, and Nao goes forward to—to comfort him? To shield him from what Akiyama is about to say? To hold him still in the face of the truth? She's not sure. But the moment her hands touch him, he jerks away.

"No! Get away from me! You're wrong! You're lying! I wanna go home."

They get no more warning before Shin takes off.

"Shin!" Nao yells, doing her best to run after him in her skirt and heels.

*

Akiyama knows, the moment Shinichi runs off, that this is up to him. Nao's lack of natural athletic ability, plus her completely impractical outfit, mean that Shin could lose her by the first turn if he really wanted to.

Time matters now. But if Akiyama starts running blindly, then he won't catch up. Plus, it occurs to Akiyama, where he catches Shinichi matters as much as, if not more than when. Where would Shinichi go? Not to Nao's apartment, or to the aquarium. Home. Home to Shinichi would be that small apartment where he and his mother once lived. But it's been torn down, and he knows, talking to Nao, that Shinichi knows that already.

No.

Home for that Shinichi is not this time at all. It's eighteen years ago. His younger self knows that too, and perhaps has been thinking about how to get back. Time travel, as an impossibility, means that Akiyama has no clue to the theory or how to make it work. Then, he thinks of the story Nao told him. And then, he remembers an annoying habit he had as a child, one involving listening in on conversations

"You found him in a crosswalk?" He asks suddenly.

Nao nods. "It's just like he appeared out of nowhere."

If Shinichi had listened to anybody, to the conversation between Nao and her father, or to the later one between Nao and himself, he must have come to a completely improbable but no less-likely conclusion: He's in that coma right now, and he needs to wake up somehow.

So, if Akiyama were in that situation, what would he do, and where would he go in order to ensure that he had the greatest chance of waking up and being in the right place? The lightbulb goes off, and the solution appears ahead of the actual step-by-step logical process.

"Where was the crosswalk where you found him?"

Nao tells him, and Akiyama takes off.

Just not exactly in the direction that Nao pointed him in.

*

His brain races alongside his body. The image of a hospital comes to mind. The one where his mother intermittently spent the rest of her life going in and out of, and the one where she finally--

It's not quite the closest one to the scene of the accident. But it's the one connected to his family. If he were sick or injured, he would have gone there.

Akiyama catches up to Shinichi outside the hospital building, just barely winded from his long run. Shin himself is nearly doubled over and breathing heavily. He can't run anymore. And to look closer at his face, his younger-self has been crying. It's too much for a kid, even if that kid is him.

"Yo." Akiyama approaches his younger self the same way he would a scared animal.

"Go away!" Shinichi turns around to hide the evidence of his tears.

Akiyama shakes his head. "I can't."

"This isn't real. Go away."

If not for the fact that Akiyama can quite clearly feel the strong spring breeze hitting the sweat on his brow, or the fact that he can hear his heart pounding in his chest, he might agree that this whole thing must be a hallucination.

"I can't."

"This is only a nightmare. Mom's alive, and I'm not a loser who becomes a criminal and a construction worker instead of going to a good school! I'm smart! I study all the time! This can't be my future!"

Akiyama doesn't know to agree or disagree. He knows his future, and what causes it. "She died," he states it cold and distantly. "She died because the greedy preyed on her, and she couldn't bring herself to ask for my help. If I had known...I would have quit school in an instant. You know it too, what you would do to protect her."

Shinichi stiffens, but he doesn't run.

"She never asked. Never gave any sign that she needed me to help her. And then one day, it was too late. Then I found the bastards who put her in that position and stole her life away, and I promised to take what mattered most to them. I destroyed them. I traded my previous life for three years in prison for fraud and a criminal record in order to avenge her. And I'd pay the same price again if I had to."

Shinichi tries bravado. "I wouldn't have gotten caught."

"I confessed." Akiyama admits, "I wanted the world to at least see what these bastards did to ruin the lives of so many people, and give Mom a voice in court. But no, the newspapers were so impressed with my single-handed destruction of that company, that all the stories were about the genius con artist and not about what those bastards did that hurt so many people."

"Some genius." Shinichi's bitter tone echoes exactly what his older self feels, another annoying habit of his.

The click of Nao's heels on the pavement signal her arrival, as does the loud sound of her respiration.

"Akiyama-san, Shin-kun." Her sputters and coughs ruin her attempt to look strict. "Don't run off like that."

"It's okay." Akiyama moves to reassure her. "Shinichi knows what happened. We're in the right place anyway."

"Is this where you came after the accident.?"

"Should be. This is the hospital my family and I always went to."

Nao nods. "Same here."

"You're in there." Akiyama says to his younger self, with certainty. Memories of the incident, long repressed and forgotten, come to the surface. "I can't tell you which room or which floor. But you're in there. Mom is with you," he closes his eyes, "and a man carrying a little girl. I think, if you find them, you'll wake up."

Shinichi nods.

What more can he tell his former self? Akiyama knows from his experience, that he won't remember any of this. Anything said would be for his own benefit. He has to try one thing though. "You're going to get into Teito University, and you'll even go to graduate school. On September 24th, during your second year of graduate school, take that day off and spend it with Mom. And when she tells you that nothing is wrong, don't believe her. Don't let her go."

"I won't." Shinichi vows.

Akiyama still knows what's going to happen. As much as he would love to wake up tomorrow with his mother still alive and proud of him, he doesn't have enough of Nao's foolish trust to actually believe that the past is so easily molded. "And if it does happen," Akiyama adds, "Don't waste time blaming yourself or Mom. Just do what you have to do."

His younger self can only nod.

Nao—who has remained silent for a while—walks forward and embraces Shinichi. Lucky kid, Akiyama thinks. She leans down and whispers her parting words into his ear, too low for Akiyama to successfully eavesdrop. Shinichi grins when she's done though. "It's time to go home, Shin-kun."

Shinichi walks to the hospital entrance. "Sayonara, Nao-san, Akiyama-san." Everything seems to have ended until Shinichi thinks to add on: "Akiyama-san, if you mess up my chances with Nao-san, you're going to be really sorry!" as he walks into the hospital.

Akiyama watches amusedly as Nao does her best to hold back her laughter.

"What did you tell him?" Akiyama asks.

Nao looks up at him, that warm, scary, wonderful smile on her face that makes him consider saying and doing some very un-Akiyama-like things to her. "Do you really want to know, Akiyama-san?"

"You're going to tell me anyway."

Her hands go to her bosom, "I told him that he should be very proud of the type of person he's going to become." That adorable blush comes up her cheeks, and Akiyama has a feeling that she's not telling him the whole story. He considers the possibility of teasing it out of her, and the fun times that could result. After all these months of trying to keep his life with Nao and the Liar Game separate from his daily life, it suddenly seems completely futile to even try.

"Oh? The type of person who appeals to Kanzaki Nao?"

"Well, yes, I guess if you want to paraphrase." She looks away, almost ready to run. "Akiyama-san?" Nao asks, changing the subject. "Do you think Shin-kun will be all right?"

His answer comes with one-hundred percent certainty. "He'll be fine."

*

To ten-year-old Shinichi, navigating the dim corridors of the hospital, somehow invisible in the nurses, patients, and visitors who move around him. He guesses that's a good thing, if only because he's sure that someone would try and stop him from exploring.

As he searches, the echoes of the older Akiyama's story goes through him. He still thinks he could have done better, that he would have kept his mother alive, that he would have had his revenge without giving up his dream, but he understands now, a little bit, how that Akiyama came to be.

And then Nao's final words echo through his head: "Akiyama-san is a strong, smart, kind, and brave person. He doesn't turn his back on the people who need his help, even when it would be easier for him. And he never runs away, even from near-impossible odds. You should be very, very proud of the person you're going to become."

His own self lies in the center, nigh unrecognizable when it's hooked up to machines determined to track and stabilize every single one of his vital signs.

He finds the room. His mother, kerchief tied around her dark hair, sits at his side holding his hand and crying, and in the distance, as his future-self said, a man in glasses—Kanzaki-san before he got old and sick—carrying a little girl. Nao-san in the present day. The family of the woman who gave him this chance to live at the cost of her own life.

Shin tries not to think of that. Nor think about the fact that his mother, who looks so worn out from this strange perspective, will die before he's had a chance to become successful enough that she doesn't have to work so hard. Nor about the fact that the old man will become sick while his daughter is still in school. He doesn't mind thinking that the little girl will grow up to be Nao, and that for all his future-self did wrong, she seems to like him okay.

Shin shakes his head, that's the future and it might not even be real or fixed. In the present, only one thing matters: They're all waiting for him.

He lies down, and wakes up.

*

Everything hurts. His eyes hurt, his head hurts, his skin hurts, even his hairs hurt. The last thing he remembers is the sight of the car coming to hit him, the sound of a woman's voice shouting, and the feeling of pavement beneath him, everything else consolidates into a slight feeling that he forgot something important.

"Mom? Where am I?"

"Shinichi!" Her arms surround him, and he suddenly feels like he's been away for a while. "You're alive. Thank goodness. I thought you were—don't run out in the street like that!" He blinks, and finally focuses in on her face, and the tears tracking down her cheeks.

Trying to look at anywhere besides his mother's crying face, Shinichi notices the man in glasses standing in the background. "Who's that?"

The man in glasses steps forward, and Shinichi can see the little girl he carries in one arm. "Someone who is very glad to see you alive, young man."

"Mom, is this a new boyfriend?" Shinichi never really likes any of the other dates that his mom occasionally has, but somehow having this solemn man as a father and a baby sister to go with doesn't seem horrible.

His mother shakes her head, with tears in her eyes. "I don't think so, Shinichi. It's still just going to be the two of us," she turns to the man in glasses though, "Thank you, Kanzaki-san. You've been more than gracious, considering everything."

Kanzaki closes his eyes. "Akiyama-san, I couldn't have done anything else to honor Natsuko's act. Please take care of yourself and your family. And you," he voice grows stern as he looks at Shinichi, "take care of yourself and grow up to be a good man."

"Yes, sir." Shinichi looks at the child in Kanzaki's arms, and the little girl stares back at him from her perch. "What's her name?"

"Nao. She just turned one about a month ago."

"Nao-chan, huh?" he smiles, "That's a nice name."

Kanzaki smiles. "Nao-chan, can you wave to Shinichi-kun?"

The little girl gives a smile and a shy little wave, before she buries her face in her father's sweater.

Shinichi smiles back as he lays back down to go to sleep. Everything seems to be about right.

He is where he's supposed to be.


	5. The Days After

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Consider this an epilogue.

Three weeks after the younger Shinichi returns to his own time, and one week after the Liar Game finally ends, Akiyama finds himself at Nao's door. The meantime he has spent researching, planning, and practicing both his chess game and his sleight of hand. And perhaps he has done a little bit of soul-searching, as well. He comes to her doorstep with some information and an idea of how he wants everything to go.

"I did some research on the accident," Akiyama says, "Found some old newspaper articles. Time travel aside, everything corroborates." To demonstrate, he puts the folder of newspaper clippings he found on the table. There are a few articles, the accident report, the obituary for Kanzaki Natsuko, and then a small human-interest story on Akiyama's miraculous recovery. He keeps the letters to the editor he's found, particularly a nasty one condemning Natsuko for leaving her daughter motherless and making her husband a widower, to himself.

"Do you remember going through this?"

"Nothing about meeting my future self," Akiyama says, "but I remember waking up now. My mother was there, and so were you and your father."

"Me?"

"You slept a lot," Akiyama says. Not entirely accurate of his memories, but it's close enough. "I think your father wanted to play chess with me too." Akiyama is almost positive that it was during one of those chess games that he had learned about Nao's mother, even if he doesn't remember, the exact moments or the exact words, only that the news had been devastating enough to repress.

"I think I might have asked my mom if your dad was a new boyfriend, and thinking that it wouldn't be bad to have a dad and a baby sister."

Her eyes widen at that, and she tilts her head. "It would have been nice to have Akiyama-san for a big brother."

Akiyama recalls thinking something similar at the time. Eighteen years later though, his opinion has definitely changed. "I think things worked out for the best."

"Akiyama-san?"

He digs for a non-obvious but completely believable reason. "I couldn't have been nearly as objective if my little sister had been in danger." That's true, he guesses. Not that he'd ever been objective in his dealings with Nao, but the pretense had been there.

Fortunately she buys his excuse. Or at least all she does is nod at him.

Akiyama continues with his plan. "I should meet with your father."

"My father? Why?" She seems a little startled by that.

Before Nao can think too much about it, Akiyama steps in to explain his reasoning. "Don't you think he might be curious about what happened to the boy his wife saved?"

Nao nods. "I know he would."

"I'd like to thank him as well. Your mother wasn't the only one who helped my family out after the accident." That's actually the complete truth, even if it's one he only realizes in retrospect. Back then, Akiyama had never questioned the time his mother took off from work to look after him, but now, understanding how tight their money had been even then, he sees the extra help that Nao's father had given.

"I see."

"But most importantly," Akiyama says, "I want to see if I can beat your father at chess. I've been practicing."

Nao raises an eyebrow, suspicious without actually suspecting anything. "Really, Akiyama-san? That's the most important reason?"

He smirks. "It's time for a rematch."

*

Later, they lay in Nao's bed together, about to go to sleep, but unable to do so just yet. Tempting as it would be to try and convince Nao that they should use the bed for something besides sleeping, Akiyama decides that his devious mind would best be put to use finding a way to get her to seduce him. If the way that she seems to automatically caress his bare chest and stomach are any indication, he shouldn't need to try too hard.

"I think," Nao says, her fingers on his stomach slowing to match the thoughtful pace of her words, "that all four of us needed Shin to be there at that time, and so it just happened."

"Things don't happen just because you need them to. Especially things that are impossible."

"I guess you're right," Nao's fingers stop their unconscious caresses, "but so many things have happened lately. There was a one in 100,000 chance that I would receive the invitation to the Liar Game. That itself is highly improbable. It happened though. And what were the chances of finding the one honest con-artist in all of Japan, and convincing him to help me?"

Akiyama lets himself give into the urge to touch her, just a brush of his fingers on her cheek. "One in a hundred-thousand is rare, not impossible, and your finding me wasn't random chance at all. You sought me out. Maybe you're just so naïve that it cracks the space-time continuum. Magical thinking is dangerous. "

"How do you think it happened Akiyama-san?"

To be honest, he has no clue about that even now. Maybe he has found the one person in the entire world who violates all laws of cause-and-effect. "To tell the truth, it's good enough that no one disappeared. If Shin were here and that he was from another time, we could perhaps piece together a case study. But he's gone. So don't lose sleep over wondering how it works."

Nao shakes her head, "I wouldn't have let Shin-kun stay with me. He needed to go back to his original time, grow up, and become Akiyama-san."

How simple of her, Akiyama thinks. How simple and absolutely perfect. Her arm drapes across his chest, and as Akiyama tries to figure out what—if anything—he can say to that. The words he wants to say get lodged up in his throat, and by the time he even considers forcing them out, she's fast asleep.

"He needed to grow up and meet you," Akiyama says when he's absolutely positive that she can't hear his voice. Akiyama kisses her on her forehead and smiles as she shifts slightly, and settles into his arms.

*

A few days later, Nao and Akiyama arrive at the hospice where the elder Kanzaki stays. To tell the truth, Nao's a little nervous, not that she has any reason to be, really. Except that after all Akiyama's done for her—and how much he means to her—if her father can't see past Akiyama's outside to the genuinely wonderful person he is, Nao's not sure she could take it.

"Father?" Nao pokes her head into his room, and reminds herself that he's not meeting her father for any traditional purpose.

"Nao-chan," He gives a weak smile. "It's always wonderful to see you."

"I brought a visitor today," Nao steps aside and reveals Akiyama Shinichi, who has—with the help of a hairbrush and some styling gel—managed to tame his hair into something almost respectable to go with the button-up shirt and dress pants that he claims he suddenly remembered that he owned. "This is Akiyama Shinichi-san."

"Akiyama-san," The voice crackles, "It appears you've grown up well. Do you remember me?"

Akiyama nods. "I owe you and your wife everything. I just came by to thank you. My mother and I will always be grateful for what your family has done for us."

Her father looks at Akiyama-san closely, and Nao shifts a little on behalf of Akiyama. "You play chess, Akiyama-san?"

"Yes."

Nao already has the old chessboard out and sets the pieces up for both sides. A little part of her—the one who has grown up sharing in her father's hobby—wants to see the outcome of this game. Akiyama's brilliance on one end, and her father's years of experience and own sharp mind on the other.

"You take white. Nao will move the pieces for me."

Akiyama nods his assent, and the following battle becomes one that even Nao, as a bystander, has to admire for its intensity.

"I concede." Her father says at last, "you should take mercy on the old and infirm." He smiles though. "Although, for your level of experience, I'd say your strategy is brilliant."

Akiyama's eyes widen. "Thank you, sir. It's an honor."

"Nao," her father says, breaking a silence with his gravelly voice, "Tanaka-san down the hall told me earlier this week that she misses having your company."

"Oh!" Nao's been so on edge with the business of the Liar Game final and Shin that she really hasn't had time to visit any of the other patients, the ones she's come to see as a family of some sort. "I should visit her, shouldn't I? If Akiyama-san doesn't mind..."

Akiyama shakes his head. "I'd like to talk to your father one-on-one."

"Of course."

When Nao returns from her visit with Tanaka, and then with Nakamura two doors down and Ichinose across the hall, she can still hear the low sounds of her father and Akiyama's voices. Though it's dishonest, she does listen for a couple of seconds before walking in.

"...my blessing as long as she's fine with it..."

"Of course, sir."

"Just wait until she graduates...."

Nao walks in, a forcing her grin and her racing heart to fit inside a more serene expression. The conversation between the two men ends, although Akiyama gives a serious nod to her father.

"Ah...Nao," Her father smiles at her, "How did your visit with Tanaka-san go?"

Nao recalls looking over the pictures of Tanaka's new granddaughter, and listening to the old lady's recollection of growing up. "It was nice."

"That's good." Her father's glance goes to Akiyama-san. "Tell me what do you think of our visitor here?"

"Oh, Akiyama-san?" Nao feels the blush going past her cheeks and up to her ears. How much does her father know about what happened over the past year? "I think he's truly an amazing person. Very clever. Very strong. Very kind."

They both stare at her. What? Did she say too much?

"Well, Akiyama-san," her father says with a smile, "I think everything will be fine."

Akiyama bows. "Thank you, sir. I'm happy to have the chance to meet with you again."

"Same here, Akiyama-san. I'm counting on you."

*

"So, you and my father got along well." Nao observes, on the way back to her apartment. At this point, even she knows something is up, but she's waited until after she's bought the ingredients for dinner tonight—cooking for both herself and Akiyama of course—before she says anything.

He smirks. "It went well."

Nao sighs. Of course Akiyama has to be cryptic.

"I've been thinking about what I should do next," Akiyama says, taking the bag from Nao suddenly. His hand lingers a bit on hers as he takes the bag. " Manual labor isn't bad, but it's not what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. So I've been thinking about getting back into school, maybe become a professor."

Nao can see him doing that. "You're a good teacher, Akiyama-san. I've definitely learned a lot from you." She has. Nao has aced her psychology course this past semester and managed to impress the teacher with the insights she's gained from her experiences with Akiyama and the Liar Game.

"My criminal record might make it difficult to get into a top university, but I have the qualifications for an assistant otherwise, and I can get my PhD at the same time."

She can see Akiyama back at school, working in academia. Of course, if he were her professor—Nao can already imagine how many students would have a huge crush on him. "You'd definitely be able to do it. I believe in you." Unable to look at Akiyama, Nao focuses her attention on unlocking the door.

"There's one more thing," Akiyama says too casually, unpacking the bag of groceries, while Nao gets out the pots and pans for making dinner. Then he says nothing else for a minute or two.

"What?" Nao finally asks, when he remains silent for a little too long.

"You really haven't noticed yet?" Akiyama raises an eyebrow, and Nao feels like she must have missed something obvious.

"Huh?"

"Your hand."

Nao looks down. Her normally bare left-hand now wears a silver ring. She stares and blinks, letting the message it sends sink in. "Akiyama-san...how..." She tries to ask how he slipped the ring on her finger, but the words slide from her grasp.

Akiyama smirks. "When I took the bags from you." He grows serious. "I've spent almost a year trying to protect you from the corporation. If something were to happen to you now..." He shakes his head, "I'd like to watch over you for a little bit longer."

Did he just say--? Does that mean he's--?No... but then, Nao looks at the ring on her finger that implies so much more than what he says. It looks right sitting there. Her voice has difficulties coming out. "I wouldn't mind but--" Nao blushes, "how much longer are we talking about?"

He shrugs. "However much longer you decide."

It's Nao's turn to smirk. Her imagination already has begun to go wild in the past few weeks thinking of what it would be like to have Akiyama as a much larger part of her life. "I think it'll be a very long time."

He smiles. "I do too."


End file.
